Maverick: The Kevin Pietersen situation has parallels in all team sports (Image: PA)

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I don’t know Kevin Pietersen, but I can assure you that any ­transformation into the arrogant, selfish, high-­maintenance maverick we have all read about this week didn’t just happen during England’s disastrous Ashes tour.

Believe me, the faults that are now being used to justify the unceremonious end of KP’s international career were among the qualities that made him our best batsman over the last decade.

The man has been hoisted by his own petard.

If England had returned from Down Under as heroes rather than zeros, no one at the English Cricket Board would have given a damn about Pietersen’s apparent foibles.

But once Alastair Cook’s men were beaten 5-0 in the biggest Test series of them all, there was always going to have to be a scapegoat to parade inside the Long Room at Lord’s.

What the hell does a football manager know about cricket? Well, my honest answer has to be: not a lot. But I do have more than a bit of experience of ­professional team sports.

And I can assure you that the dynamics of the dressing room are pretty much the same, whether it is ­football or cricket.

I’ve seen it myself loads of times.

A player walks into the club, thinking he’s God’s gift to the game. Some will take an instant dislike to him. But once he steps across that white line and proves that he can walk the walk as well as talk the talk, he will be forgiven almost anything.

You will be amazed how much managers and team-mates will be prepared to put up with if, at the end of the day, they can put another tick in the ‘win’ column.

The perfect example of that in football was George Best. When Manchester United were winning league titles and the European Cup, Bestie could get away with his drinking and womanising.

Sir Matt Busby, one of the greatest managers that has ever lived, was willing to turn a blind eye to it all because George was doing the business on the pitch, as well as off it.

But once Sir Matt had retired and United’s slide towards relegation from the old First Division had begun, all bets were off.